Well, I don't know about "most" traders making "tons" of money, but a healthy group certainly does. I've been around 50+ years doing this, and I would say that 40% of daytraders call live well off of this business. The rest are marginal or worse and will disappear to be replaced by eager faced recruits. [Hope I'm not one of your examples of a trader who posts too often]
To answer the OP question, there are traders who make a good living. And i agree alot of traders who view and don't post. To me this is more of a place for Group leaders to try and add some business. Some pay for add space here others post and try and lure you in. I would love for a forum to talk with other traders like myself about the markets and stocks without a pitch somewhere in the topic. With my network of traders it's what stock is active what are the levels and we all know what to do. None of that other stuff. Ok MELI moving yea thanks dude. IMO there is more money in sharing stocks then an over ride for me anyway. One thing i see in the stocks forum is a guy gives everyone a heads up on a stock and a shitload of comments come in.I don't understand why not say thanks or sorry don't like it. We all know it is a guy trying to pump his stock or a guy who is giving an active stock to the community. My point is for a trader who loves the market and his job like others here do where is the place to chat and weed out the salesman? Excuse me if i went OT here
"Newbies post like crazy, get highs and lows, and think everyone is like them. Most of us on this board don't post much, but make a very comfortable living. Its a good field of work and easy too." When I was new, I posted some dumb things, now like a lot of traders I make my 1-2G's per day and keep my head down. Sometimes I would like to hook up with what I would call normal day traders, not the shrill dudes trying to sell a product or idea. Frankly, I find a lot of my colleques are full of it, nature of the business, like law and real estate.
Having traded at an investment bank for a fair while now I must disagree with the last statement. Honestly? I think you guys just don't realise what a disadvantage you face trading from your own home setup. There are a significant number of "professional" traders working at banks who lose money most years on their prop trading activity. It's just that the franchise value of their market-making book is so big that it gets lost. Even traders at institutional investment firms and hedge funds have a big advantage over the day trader. The information and liquidity you get from banks is staggering. You work at a hedge fund, you get the heads up on some deal happening in the next week. You call 3 banks on 3 different phone lines and ask them a price for some suitable option in decent size - you trade with all 3, put the phone down and watch the firework display. I rarely witness the kind of discipline that traders on this board suggest you need in order to trade with your own capital.
Moderators don't need to be winning traders to moderate the board no more than a business reporter has to be a winning trader to report the news. A moderator needs to facilitate good communication, nothing more.